Coronary thrombosis is a formation of a blood clot inside the blood vessels of the heart. This blood clot actually restricts the blood flow to the heart tissues and causes ischemia, irregular heartbeat, and ventricular arrhythmia. This clotting condition is considered a part of ischemic heart diseases. Coronary thrombosis often leads to Myocardial Infarction or Heart attack due to a poor supply of oxygen. Sometimes, coronary thrombosis and myocardial infarction used as synonyms.
This is not so true because thrombosis is the narrowing of the blood vessels or blockage of vessels, while myocardial infarction is tissue death due to an insufficient oxygen supply. The heart has muscles, tissues, and many blood supplies, it is important to determine the exact location of thrombosis in which vessel. In coronary thrombosis, the blood clot is formed in the coronary artery, which is the main artery as nourishing or supplying the heart muscle.
The most common cause of coronary thrombosis is atherosclerosis. Athero means “arteries” and sclerosis means ” deposition of fats”. So, the deposition of fats inside the vessels thickened the vessels and narrow the lumen. Due to the extracellular deposition of fats, the body’s lymphocytes, neutrophils, macrophages, and plasma cells surrounded this deposit and cause little inflammation. Due to cell death or necrosis of fat cells, liquefaction necrosis occurs.
Coronary Thrombosis Causes
Coronary artery diseases such as coronary thrombosis is actually a disease of vessels inside, due to damage of the inner layer of the vessel (endothelial layer). Once the inner layer damaged, fats cells and other cells begin to adhere to the damaged portion of the vessels and make plaques or thrombus.
If this plaque breaks or ruptures, particular blood cells known as platelets begin to clump at the site of ruptured, to repair the artery. This clump can also block the vessel, results in further leading to a heart attack or myocardial infarction.
This damage can be caused by various factors and they include
- High cholesterol or fats
- Smoking or alcohol consumption
- High blood pressure
- Obesity
- Diabetes or insulin resistance
- Sedentary lifestyle
Symptoms Related To Coronary Thrombosis
When no or less oxygen is supplied to the heart tissues, cells begin to die, the contraction begins to poor or irregular, the pumping activity of the heart is disturbed and heart chambers have to more for forcefully, therefore, patients of coronary artery thrombosis mostly present with a heart attack. Coronary thrombosis is a life-threatening condition that may come with some unbearable symptoms. Such as
- Shortness of breath
- Heart attack
- Chest Pain or Angina
- Chest Pain is the most important symptom of coronary artery thrombosis which can be explained as
- Heaviness
- Burning feelings
- Numbness
- Pressure
- Aching
- Fullness or chest tightness
- Squeezing sensation
This angina pain mostly felt in the left arm, left the side of the chest which radiates to the left jaw and backside of the neck at the left side.
How Does Coronary Thrombosis Develop?
Plaque starts to go into your vessel walls from your young age. It builds up when you getting older. Actually, plaques are composed of cholesterol, fatty acids, collagen, lipids, inflammatory cells, lipoproteins as well as calcium. These plaques inflamed and damaged the vessel wall, thus, increases the risk of blood clots or blockage of vessels. It also makes the inner walls of the artery sticky.
As inflammatory cells, lipoproteins, and other more cells join in, along with the cholesterol deposits, the plaque increases more. It begins to pushing the vessel wall outward and growing inward, thus, makes the vessels lumen narrower. Blood flow slows down due to the narrowing of the vessel and increases resistance in vessels.
It seems to be symptom-free because the narrowed coronary artery develops some small new blood vessels that go around the blockage to supply the oxygenated blood to the heart muscle. However, if you are stressed, living a sedentary lifestyle or taking fat riched food, the new blood vessels may not be able to bring enough oxygenated blood to the heart muscle. This causes a heart attack.
In many cases, plaque ruptures and makes a blood clot which can block the blood supply to the heart muscle. This may another cause of heart attack. If this blood clot goes to the blood vessel of the brain such as an internal carotid artery and blocked that vessel, an ischemic stroke can happen in such conditions.
Risk Factors For Coronary Thrombosis
Risk factors for coronary artery disease or coronary thrombosis include
Age
As you are getting older, the risk of developing atherosclerotic plaque increases.
Sex
Men are mostly affected than the female
Family History
Strong family history is the most important cause. If your father or grandfather has the disease, the risk of having heart diseases doubled.
Hypertension / high blood pressure
Uncontrolled blood pressure makes your vessel walls thickened and narrows the lumen through which the blood can flow.
Diabetes mellitus
Type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes mellitus have common risk factors as coronary thrombosis such as high blood pressure or age etc.
Obesity/ overweight
Excessive body weight worsens the condition of coronary artery disease.
Smoking
Smokers are more susceptible to have coronary artery diseases than non-smokers.
High Blood Cholesterol
High blood cholesterol level can increase the risk of formation of plaque or atherosclerosis.
How Coronary Thrombosis Can Be Treated?
The people who have coronary artery disease or those who don’t have, all of them should change their lifestyle to avoid many heart diseases. Because of your diet, your living way, and habits are the primary risk factors for such diseases. Those who have developed the disease should take proper medication to minimize the symptoms. Three ways are there to manage the coronary thrombosis. They include
1- Lifestyle Changes
Control your blood sugar, if you have diabetes mellitus. Quit smoking or alcohol. Exercise regularly to keep your body weight in control.
Avoid fatty food, salty food, and processed food. Drink plenty of fluids. Eat more vegetables and fruits.
2- Medication
If lifestyle changes are not enough to treat the disease, the medicine may be needed. Medication is prescribed according to the disease condition and severity. Mostly Aspirin or Statin is given to lower the risk of heart diseases.
3- Surgery
If the disease has progressed to a more advanced stage, some surgical interventions are needed. The best surgical procedure are
- Coronary artery bypass surgery
- Stent placement
- Balloon angioplasty
